Every Which Way but Loose

Dave, Cap'n John, Marcelle, and Don just after leaving the dock.

Milling around before the start in very light air.

That's Full Moon dead center of the photo heading upwind on the first leg.

John, Dave, Daniel, and Marcelle enjoying the sunny weather.

Duck Dodge No. 1 began with a light breeze out of the southwest and sunny skies. Full Moon crew Michael “Supple” Medina, Marcelle “Skirt” Lynde, Don “U-Lock” Caffrey, Dave “Knot Me” Pulsifer, Daniel “Boom” Mengedoht, and skipper John “Guess Which Side” Mengedoht elected to stay away from the pile-up at the favored Committee Boat end of the starting line in hopes of a clear lane but this didn’t pay off. Rival Zephyr, and old rivals Ignitor and Shogun all ended up ahead, though Fortis was somewhere behind.

Full Moon enjoyed swapping tacks with a couple of T-birds and J-24s before rounding the AGC buoy and hoisting the mighty Equalizer spinnaker. The Equalizer performed well until about the middle of the lake when the wind began to die. It soon became obvious that the wind was starting to come out of the north, so the jib went back up and the spinnaker came down to complete the leg to the Freeway buoy.

Crossing past Gasworks Park and heading for the Aurora buoy, Full Moon picked off Shogun but didn’t gain much, if any, on Zephyr or Ignitor. After rounding the buoy, the Equalizer was hoisted again for the second time in a single lap and Full Moon began to reel in 33’ Penelope from the first start. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to pass the bigger boat to leeward. However, Zephyr and a T-bird had stayed to the Westlake side until reminded (ahem!) that they needed to cross the start finish line on the first lap. This brought them across to converge with Full Moon and Penelope close aboard the Committee Boat. Naturally, this was when the wind shut off again and began to fill in from the south!

Unfortunately, Penelope and Zephyr both cleared the dead zone before Full Moon and remained ahead to the AGC buoy to start the second lap. Once again, the Equalizer went up and this time Full Moon sailed a course to pass both Penelope and Zephyr to well to windward before shifting back to the jib once again to cross the doldrums.

Approaching the Freeway buoy, Ignitor was only about 50 yards ahead. Crossing Gasworks Park again, Full Moon slowly gained and eventually pulled ahead. However, the wind was getting very light near the Aurora buoy. Full Moon made it around first and hoisted the Equalizer yet again but the wind died out almost immediately. Down came the Equalizer and the crew went through several tacks trying to make progress out of any hint of breeze. Finally, a wind line began to appear ahead and Full Moon reached it first, zooming away from the pack remaining dead in the water near the buoy. The south wind finally won the lake, filling in very nicely and providing an exhilarating trip to the finish line in the fading light nearly two hours after the start.

With the crazy wind, sail changes, and focus on reeling in our rivals, I am not certain exactly how Full Moon placed but I’ll give it a semi-educated guess of eighth with Ignitor ninth and Zephyr somewhere around twelfth. Meanwhile, with the exception of Salsa (J33), the “fast” boats actually went in first start where they properly belong, a nice change from recent years. Full Moon will never be the fastest boat in second start but it does help to have more reasonable competition!